After a root around two days a go I decided the new potatoes were ready to come up. My plan this year is to clear the whole bed ready for butternut squash which need to be planted asap. That way I can get two good crops in the same space. As it was a lovely day I thought it would be a good day to get on with it.
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I've only dug up three or four plants to date so I had the whole bed to go at. The variety 'Rocket' was planted on the 17 March and it's basically been eleven weeks since they went in. I put the spuds in a bucket and wash them in batches before placing in a net bag.
The bed was cleared in a morning and the new potatoes given a quick wash. Unfortunately as we've had rain in the past few days the soil was a bit 'claggy' and the spuds took a bit of washing. After clearing all the new potato plants I forked in some general fertilizer and levelled the bed ready for the butternut squashes which will go in next week after they have hardened off. The new potatoes are laid out in their net bag to dry off in the warm afternoon sunshine. If you flip the bag over now and again and give them a shake the spuds dry very quickly.
New potatoes are not as prolific as main-crop and the point is not to grow them large; egg-sized or a smaller are fine. The Rocket have produced loads of nice sized tubers in quick time with a relatively low number of very small 'marbles'. I have normally planted Pentland Javelin or Arran Pilot but my new potato of choice will now be Rocket, I'm well pleased with the quantity (though you always want more!), the taste is lovely and they are well sized.
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